Alice
Green Hoffman had many friends. Most of what we know about them comes from
Alice’s unpublished autobiography or from their having married famous husbands.The
four we know the best are featured here: Helen Benedict Hastings, Edna Ryle,
Lillie De Hegermann-Lindencrone and Princess Victor Duleep Singh.
Helen Benedict Hastings (1871-1936)
Helen Benedict[i]
Alice entitles
a chapter of her autobiography “Helen” and makes references to her in other
sections as well.[ii] When Alice and Helen met at a lunch with Kitty Butterfield, a mutual friend,
Alice’s interest in things French was already apparent. She had the habit of
sprinkling French words in her English. Years later, Helen admits thinking
Alice was affected and made it her responsibility to rid her of affectations.
Teasingly, Helen says doing so was a difficult job, like “sawing logs.”
Born in
1871, Helen was nine years younger than Alice. Helen’s mother seems to have had
early doubts about the influence of this older single woman on her daughter and
expressed reluctance to have Alice join the family on its yacht. Nonetheless,
Alice was persistent and describes times spent at Indian Harbor with the
Benedicts at a yacht club that still exists in Greenwich, Connecticut.
One reason
Mrs. Benedict may have been especially protective was that her daughter Helen
and son Fred had hearing disabilities. But, Mrs. Benedict need not have worried
about Alice’s friendship with them because their disabilities seem to have
brought out Alice’s strengths. She would position herself between Helen and
Fred on social occasions and at theatrical performances to serve as translator
for them both. In her autobiography, Alice says, “...I don’t know anything more
touching than to sit between her and her brother Fred... & see their eyes
turn to me whenever they missed anything on the stage.” When Helen began to use
an ear trumpet, Alice would read into the trumpet to share books with her.
As time went by, ear trumpets continued to shrink so
that by 1890 or so many ear trumpets were around 25 cm (12”) long and collapsed
into shorter sections for ease in carrying them. This photo shows a three-section hard- rubber ear trumpet
collapsed to 17.8 cm (7”) (c. 1890.)[iv]
Alice
expresses disapproval of the Benedicts’ seeming lack of concern for their
children’s hearing loss. They had two other daughters, Martha and Louise, so
the demands of a large family may explain what Alice perceived as a lack of
attention to Helen and Fred. Later, when Helen’s disability was creating
“dreadful noises in her head,” we learn she was seeing hearing specialists.
Alice admired
how Helen, despite her disability, maintained her sense of humor. Alice could
always make Helen laugh and was charmed not only by Helen’s “incomparable wit”
but also by her amazing musical abilities, her love of the outdoors and spirit
of adventure. In the late 1800s, Alice and Helen travelled together to Paris
and rented a place at 55 Champs-Elysees. Alice remembers, “When we were in
Paris, Helen used to drive the Coach to Versailles.... Of course I sat beside
her, for she depended on me to be her ears....”
In 1900,
Helen Benedict married Architect Thomas Hastings.
Thomas Hastings[v]
Helen
helped him when he was designing a residence for the Benedicts. Some time
before they married, Helen had typhoid fever and was still struggling with the
aftereffects. The family seemed to put a lot of stress on her, worsening her
fragile physical and emotional condition. Her parents had offered and then
withdrew the offer to have the couple live in the Benedict home Hastings had
designed. It seems, instead, they provided an exceptionally large dowry (see
marriage notice below).
Marriage Announcement.[vi]
The
family was hoping that Helen, once married, would abandon her friendship with
Alice. However, their friendship continued. Alice stood by Helen and was a
source of strength for her. To Alice’s delight, the newly married couple went
to Paris for their honeymoon, staying in a private suite she elaborately prepared
for them in her home, which was then at 29 Avenue du Bois de Boulogne.
Biographical Note[vii]
Thomas
Hastings, five years earlier, had established the firm of Carrère and Hastings
with John Merven Carrère. Early on they achieved such architectural
accomplishments as the Ponce de Leon Hotel in St. Augustine, Florida, now part
of Flagler College; Hotel Alcazar, which became the Lightner Museum; and,
probably his most famous building, the New York Public Library.
Lightner
Museum in St. Augustine, Florida, designed by Carrère and Hastings[viii]
In
recognition of his architectural reputation, Thomas Hastings was appointed to
the Jury of Architects at the Paris Exposition of 1900. Although Alice seemed
to like “Tommy” and was pleased he and Helen were celebrating their honeymoon
at her home, she once again shows her protective side, expressing some
disappointment that he had his career utmost in mind even during his honeymoon.
Regarding the Paris Exposition, Alice says, “...he could have dispensed with
that honour to have had a little more time with his bride.”
Later,
after Carrère’s death, Thomas Hastings went on to design such famous places as
the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetery and the Henry Clay Frick
House, now a museum, on Fifth Avenue in New York City.
Thomas
and Helen were married 29 years. He died of complications of an appendectomy
October 22, 1929. Helen outlived him by nine years, dying in 1936.
Interestingly, this is around the time Alice would leave Paris and move, more
or less, permanently to Pine Knoll Shores.
Edna Ryle
The only
friend to visit Alice in Pine Knoll Shores was Edna Ryle, whose maiden name we
do not know. Edna is somewhat of a mystery to us. She was married to Ernest
Ryle. Edna and Ernest owned a fishing and hunting camp in Canada where Alice
spent happy summer days after her divorce in 1910. The camp, which later burned
down, was in the woods, and in addition to offering lodging, provided guides.
Alice discovered how much she loved the wild outdoors during her stay with Edna
and Ernest in Canada, an experience that influenced her attraction to Bogue
Banks five years later.
Unfortunately,
she could not duplicate that experience when Edna came to Bogue Banks. At the
time, Alice either was still renting a cottage from John Royall or just bought
it. She was remodeling. The weather, unfortunately, turned cold. Alice’s fireplaces were not well vented, and the
construction noise was annoying.
The
only other details we learn from Alice’s autobiography are that Edna was present when Alice attended an auction to buy property in Jamaica, Long Island, and, later, that Alice imported
Arabica coffee beans from the Esperanza plantation in the Chiapas region of
Mexico because her friends Ernest and Edna Ryle had an interest in the
Esperanza Plantation.
Lillie De
Hegermann-Lindencrone (1844-1928)
Reproduced for the portrait painted in 1880 by B.C.
Porter and reprinted with The Sunny Side of Diplomatic Life)[ix]
But, back
to earlier years and to Lillie De Hegermann-Lindencrone, who being 18 years
older than Alice was often referred to as Mrs. or Mme. Hegermann-Lindencrone.
She served as Alice’s hostess in Stockholm and Copenhagen, introducing her in royal
circles, and then continuing to befriend her in France.
Lillie
was a Greenough, a wealthy family from Cambridge, Massachusetts. She grew up
living with her grandfather Judge Fay in what is now the Fay House at Radcliff
College.
Fay
House [x]
Lillie
was a talented singer and, at 15, went to London with her mother to study
voice. At 17, she married Charles Moulton, an American banker who resided in
Paris. There she began her contacts with ruling families, being a guest at the
court of Napoleon III. Charles Moulton died shortly after returning to the
states. A few years later, Lillie
married M. de Hegermann-Lindencrone, who at the time was a Danish minister to
the U.S. He later represented Demark in Stockholm, Rome, Paris and Berlin as
well as in Washington, D.C. Lillie’s book of letters, The Sunny Side of Diplomatic Life, documents her experiences year
by year.
An online
bio of her says: “She was, by her own description,
a friend and favourite of a number of contemporary royal houses, being intimate with Christian
IX of Denmark and his queen
Louise
of Hesse-Kassel (or
Hesse-Cassel); Umberto
I of Italy and his queen
Margherita
of Savoy, Oscar II of Sweden and his queen Sofia of Nassau; and the many offspring and relations of
these families. She was also acquainted with many of the famous composers of
her day, including Richard
Wagner, Franz Liszt, and Gioacchino Rossini.”[xi]
To that illustrious list, we could add famous writers such as Ibsen and
Longfellow.
Alice met
Mme. Lillie Hegermann-Lindencrone in Newport in the summer of 1893. Lillie was
well known as a singer.[xii] Inviting Alice to sing at one of her social gatherings made Alice so eager to
please that she sent for her Parisian accompanist. Alice admits her French
songs did not go over well, but she must have in other ways made a positive impression.
At the
time, Mme. Hegermann-Lindencrone ‘s husband was the Danish ambassador to
Sweden, and they invited Alice to join them in Stockholm for the winter. It was
during this visit, when Alice was 31 years old, that she became a guest of European
royal families.
It seems
Mme. Hegermann-Lindencrone’s purpose was not only to introduce Alice to
Stockholm and Copenhagen but also to find her an appropriate husband. Through Mme.
Hegermann-Lindencrone’s influence, Alice had several offers of marriage—from an
Italian prince, from the cousin of the Belgian minister’s wife, from a
Frenchman who became an ambassador in Washington, D.C., and others equally
connected. However, Alice states in her autobiography that neither titles nor
“a marriage of convenience...had the smallest appeal for me.... My liberty has
always seemed more precious....”
Lady Anne Blanche Coventry
(1874-1956)—Princess Victor Duleep Singh
Even
before Alice had met the Hegermann-Lindencrones, she had royal friends—most
notably Lady Blanche Coventry who married Prince Victor Duleep Singh in 1898.
The Prince was the eldest son of a wealthy maharaja who had been exiled from
India to England. Queen Victoria had favored his family until he decided to
revert to his Sikhi faith. Doing so caused the British government to renege on
commitments to him, and his children lost their property inheritance, including
their palace at Elveden.
The
Editor of East Meets West: Prince &
Princess Victor Duleep Singh states: “The
marriage of Prince Victor Albert Jay Duleep Singh, godson of Queen Victoria, to
Lady Anne Blanche Coventry in the fashionable St Peter's church, Eaton Square,
London, in 1898 was as controversial as it was unusual. Eyebrows were raised
all around and not only because the groom was bankrupt. It was also the first
time a Sikh prince - or an Indian one - had married an English noblewoman.”
Prince Victor Duleep Singh[xiv]
Prince Victor had been a big
spender who was deeply in debt. He had an annual allowance from the British
government, but his debts in the late 1890s greatly exceeded that allowance.
Despite his situation, the
wedding was “a lavish affair,” according to author Peter Bance’s book Sovereign, Squire and Rebel as quoted in
East Meets West: “Invitations had
been sent to every family of note. The ceremony was held at St Peter's, Eaton
Square, where so many fashionable weddings of the day took place. The church
was besieged by sightseers and those interested in the Coventry family and that
of the prince.”
When the couple returned
from their honeymoon, Queen Victoria invited them to a ball and then to a
private audience at Buckingham Palace where she proclaimed they were never to
have any children, “effectively ending the lineage of the exile for the
security of the British empire and that they must leave England and live
abroad.”
They became exiles in Paris,
where Alice met the princess through a common interest in racehorses. Lady Anne
Blanche Coventry had been “a skilled horsewoman” and quite well liked in
England.
Lady Anne’s home
Living in Paris as Princess
Victor Duleep Singh, she was an attractive friend, who influenced Alice’s
purchase of at least three racehorses.
Prince and Princess
This friendship seems to
have ended around the breakout of World War II. The Prince died in 1918, and
the Princess moved back to England. Alice left Paris temporarily and bought
property on Bogue Banks in North Carolina.
[ii]
Autobiography of Alice Hoffman from East
Carolina University Joyner Library Special Collections. Unless others noted,
information about Alice’s experiences with her friends comes from her
autobiography.
[vi]
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9C02E6DE1F3CE433A25752C0A9639C946197D6CF
[ix] http://www.gutenberg.org/files/13955/13955-h/13955-h.htm
The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sunny Side of Diplomatic Life, 1875-1912.
Lillie DeHegermann-Lindencrone, Release Date: November 4, 2004, updated November 4, 2004. EBook #13955, ISO-8859-1.
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
“Several
publications documenting her career as a singer were released, including one by
Samuel Frizzell.”
[xii] Ibid.
xiii